Current Players

By Christopher Muglia

E-Commerce’s The internet has taken off in the maritime industry, with no less than eighty-four plus websites. Sure, some of those eighty-four companies are winging it, not much more than a couple of guys in the basement with a bright idea, too many credit cards maxed out and the clock ticking. Many of the others, backed by big, supposedly smart, money, are burning through cash like a Hollywood hills fire storm with no web site, no product, no revenue stream and no firm launch date. At best several of the new e-commerce companies are just embarrassingly hurried stabs at the hot new thing by established old line salt and steel firms that are afraid of being left out of the most dramatic change in transportation since the steam engine and the container. Continue Reading

ABC gets a “D”

By Matt McCleery

In Jim Dowling’s remarks at Marine Money’s Ship Finance 2000 conference on June 20th, the dean of shipping equity analysis provided delegates with a checklist of the characteristics of a successful issuer of public equity. Key items on the list included; sector focus, potential for issuer to become consolidator, an offering larger than $100 million, modern assets and a service oriented approach to business.

While there was perhaps nothing novel in the content of the lists, Mr. Dowling’s approach effectively crystallized his four decades of experience in the sector into a form as useful as an “A to Z” guide to the tangled streets of London. For equity underwriters and companies hoping to tap the thick veins of capital that course through the public equity markets, Mr. Dowling’s list should be required reading for a first informational meeting. For shipping investors, the list should be folded into a small rectangle to be kept in the wallet at all times and pulled out, even before firing-up the HP and accepting the free roadshow lunch.
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Freshly Minted – May 25, 2000

BREAKING NEWS

FRONTLINE AND GOLDEN OCEAN AGREE ON FINANCIAL RESTRUCTURING PLAN OF GOLDEN OCEAN.

Frontline has agreed to a restructuring plan with Golden Ocean a company that holds interest in 14 VLCCs, 3 VLCC newbuilding contracts and 10 bulk carriers. Under the agreement Golden Ocean shall become a wholly owned subsidiary of Frontline.

Frontline has committed to pay up to USD 33 million in cash, or to issue up to 4.1 million shares and 1.9million warrants in Frontline valued to USD 48 million to take over all unsecured debt and all upstream guarantees. These numbers do not include a takeout of the USD 78 million Golden Ocean bonds currently controlled by Frontline. The payment gives the bondholders a payment of between 15 % and 22 % of their claim dependent on which alternative they take. Other unsecured claims will receive approximately 5 %. The issue price for the Frontline shares is set to USD 10.00 while the strike price for the warrants is set to USD 12.21. The old share capital in Golden Ocean will according to the plan be cancelled while new share capital will be injected by Frontline. In addition, the Joint Plan will provide for the release of upstream guarantees in favour of the bondholders. Fredriksen stated that, “We anticipate that a co-ordination with the Frontline fleet will reduce the Golden Ocean cost structure with approximately USD 10 million per year through a reduction in overhead and ship operating cost.” Continue Reading

Freshly Minted – May 18, 2000

HIGH YIELD

12th Anniversary Ship Finance New York : “Deals in the Hallways”

June 20-21, Marriott Marquis Times Square

This year’s program, unofficially called “Deals in the Hallways”, celebrates and examines the most interesting deals recently, and not yet, completed. By examining current market transactions, delegates will learn about methods of finance currently available, better ways to use traditional finance and have meaningful contact with the most active ship owners/financiers in the marketplace. As always, the biggest deals of the year will be done in hallways, so we encourage you not to miss out. Day Two of the event will focus on the impact of dot com on the international shipping community. Speakers from leading maritime dot com companies and the most active investment bankers and venture capitalists will come together and the transactions will follow. As always, there will numerous festivities this year and, of course, New York is lovely in June, so we hope you’ll join us. For more information, contact us at info@marinemoney.com, tel. (203) 406-0106 or fax (203) 406-0110. Continue Reading

Freshly Minted – May 11, 2000

12th Anniversary Ship Finance New York : “Deals in the Hallways”

June 20-21, Marriott Marquis Times Square

This year’s program, unofficially called “Deals in the Hallways”, celebrates and examines the most interesting deals recently, and not yet, completed. By examining current market transactions, delegates will learn about methods of finance currently available, better ways to use traditional finance and have meaningful contact with the most active ship owners/financiers in the marketplace. As always, the biggest deals of the year will be done in hallways, so we encourage you not to miss out. Day Two of the event will focus on the impact of dot com on the international shipping community. Speakers from leading maritime dot com companies and the most active investment bankers and venture capitalists will come together and the transactions will follow. As always, there will numerous festivities this year and, of course, New York is lovely in June, so we hope you’ll join us. For more information, contact us at info@marinemoney.com, tel. (203) 406-0106 or fax (203) 406-0110.

HIGH YIELD

Not too much going on with foreign issuers not required to file their 1Q numbers until Monday, May 15th, though we have noticed that most of them prefer to file on Friday evenings. Continue Reading

Freshly Minted – May 4, 2000

12th Anniversary Ship Finance New York : “Deals in the Hallways”

June 20-21, Marriott Marquis Times Square

This year’s program, unofficially called “Deals in the Hallways”, celebrates and examines the most interesting deals recently, and not yet, completed. By examining current market transactions, delegates will learn about methods of finance currently available, better ways to use traditional finance and have meaningful contact with the most active ship owners/financiers in the marketplace. As always, the biggest deals of the year will be done in hallways, so we encourage you not to miss out. Day Two of the event will focus on the impact of dot com on the international shipping community. Speakers from leading maritime dot com companies and the most active investment bankers and venture capitalists will come together and the transactions will follow. As always, there will numerous festivities this year and, of course, New York is lovely in June, so we hope you’ll join us. For more information, contact us at info@marinemoney.com, tel. (203) 406-0106 or fax (203) 406-0110.

HIGH YIELD

WHY THE KENTUCKY DERBY IS LIKE SHIPPING Continue Reading

Thank You: For Oslo and Hong Kong

Over the course of two days in April, 300 of leading ship owners, financiers and other ship finance professionals gathered at the Hong Kong Yacht Club, Hong Kong’s Excelsior Hotel, Oslo Stock Exchange, Oslo Concert Hall and various restaurants and tap rooms in Oslo and Hong Kong to exchange views on ship finance.

Deals were done in hallways, friends were reacquianted and jokes were shared. But above all, more than at any other time in the 12 years that we have published Marine Money, a feeling of change is charging the atmosphere with electricity.

Pools, public companies, mergers, fiercer regulations, e-commerce-the feeling all over the world is that the shipping industry is undergoing the largest change it has experienced at any time in this century. Where there is change there is opportunity and the opportunities have truly never been greater for all of us.
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Chasing Tanker Stocks Up

One of the few benefits that has come from shipping’s tangle with the high yield bond market is that more institutional investors and analysts have taken the time to understand the sector. Yet one of the complaints we hear from investors fact that there just aren’t enough companies listed on US stock exchanges that have adequate liquidity and market capitalization. This means that relative value analysis goes out the window and investors who wish to play the sector “pig pile” on the few tankers stocks out there. We call it the “Teekay Effect”. Even OMI saw its share price double in the recent scramble to participate in the upturn. But all that may be changing. If the tanker market continues to be strong through the summer, investors might have more stocks to choose going forward. From a marketing perspective, the timing couldn’t be better. Remember when Posidonia rolled around 2 years ago – the high yield bond market had reached an orgy-like state with more investment bankers spotted tramping along the Akti Miaouli trying to sign up issuers than in the entire history of Greek shipowning.
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Relative Values

By Nicolai Heidenreich

For the past eight years, we have been producing our annual Ranking of the world’s publicly traded and private shipping companies. Through a variety of ratios, our Rankings help public and private shipowners, investors, bankers and underwriters benchmark performance among peer groups and determine where value exists amongst companies that must compete for the same capital.

This year our efforts come in two forms – the Ranking of 13 tanker companies based on a number of performance and financial ratios as well as detailed financial profiles of each of the companies in the peer group. We couldn’t have picked a more exciting time to rank the tanker sector. Continue Reading

MIFfed in Oslo: Floating is Nice, But Low Viscosity Also Helps

Recommendation: Qualified Buy

by Geoff Uttmark

“Anything out there to crash into?” queries the Captain gruffly.
“Only Bermuda (or equivalent),” replies the Third Mate.
“No time like the present to find out if this kid can steer.”

So begins the crawl up the hawspipe to captaincy for those whom the sea calls and forever embraces. The course may be a straight pencil line on the chart, but the seismograph-like record penned in ink by the “Iron Mike” bears witness to just how far the ship has gone, and the helmsman needs to go, to actually get somewhere. Mid-ocean manual conning as antidote to sleep on the graveyard watch has now gone the way of many other “quaint” seafaring traditions. The practice did, however, have other merits. It taught, for instance, that even the humbling “wavy line” course with its attendant chiding from shipmates got you to the next sea buoy when your ETA said you would be there. Nothing is ever as simple as it appears, but perseverance does pay off.
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